Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Αυτόχειρες παρθένοι by Jeffrey Eugenides

12 reviews

toffishay's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

As a lifelong Michigander, it was high time that I read this book that so often makes listicles for the quintessential "Michigan Gothic". I can certainly see how it fits the bill. The premise of five young girls trapped in a house becoming more and more isolated from their crumbling suburban community and losing hope for a future until they all commit suicide is extremely Gothic. The premise is that the story is being told years later by a group of men who were obsessed with with Lisbon girls when they were all younger, back when the suicides happened. They have collected evidence, memorabilia, and stories from anything and anyone who was even a little connected to the girls. The need that the men have to collect and analyze everything about them is an analysis and criticism of the ways that boys idealize girls, seeing them as pretty objects so separate from themselves, but ultimately they are all the same. It is an interesting story all about decline, death, the loss of ourselves and our communities. 

I think that the story loses me not in the plot, but in the pacing. It comes out hot out of the gate and then things really slow down after the first two chapters and don't pick up again until the very end. I also think that the characterization of some of the girls suffers from the short length and that the space that is used is to add color to that world. Setting the scene is important of course and makes the characters feel more real, but I would have liked a little more insight into some of the older Lisbon daughters like Therese, Mary, and Bonnie. Cecilia and Lux are interesting, but I would have liked a deeper dive all around.

If I were to compare it, it does put me in a mind frame of Don Delillo's White Noise. I don't like The Virgin Suicides quite that much, but I do think that they have similar themes of the decline of the white American suburban ideal, the falseness behind it all. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Medical content, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexism, Fatphobia, and Classism

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, Child death, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Stalking

lindasoderlundd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child death, Misogyny, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Confinement, and Mental illness

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal death, and Vomit

katharinaamaliae's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Vomit and Alcohol

withlivjones's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I really wanted to enjoy this book. The premise is intriguing and the prose is very well-written, but overall this book is just about a group of grown men looking back at and obsessing over five teenage girls who were very clearly suffering, and that made it very difficult to get through. 

Eugenides’ writing style is very poetic. His descriptions so vividly convey the setting of seventies suburbia, where everyone seems to know everyone else. The Lisbon house itself, and its gradual and inevitable decay that mirrors the decay of the family inside, is also very well described. The use of the first person plural pronoun “we” as the narrator is an interesting and bold choice but is excellently handled and gives a clear sense of the mob mentality of the neighbourhood boys (who later become men). While many of them are named and described as individuals, by using “we” they blend into a sort of homogenous group that parallels how they see the Lisbon sisters. 

However, the vivid descriptions take up the bulk of the novel to the extent that the story moves painfully slowly, to the point where I had been waiting for the rest of the suicides to occur for so long that I was almost relieved when they did. It even could have been cut down to an excellent short story, but as it is the prose is rather difficult to get through and there are so many unnecessary tangents where the timeline confusingly switches between past when the girls’ suicides happen and present when the now fully grown men are investigating them. Furthermore, the extent that these poor girls have been put on a pedestal by these men (who barely knew them, merely watched them from afar!) over years (decades, even) of morbid obsession made me deeply uncomfortable. It seems to romanticise their mental illnesses in a rather dangerous way. 

I can appreciate the fact that this book has some very well-written prose, but in the end is just wasn’t for me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Ableism, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit

empathreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Its gruesome details are described as prosaic and poetic, with the metaphorical lines humming along the monstrosity of taking one's own life. It gave statistical inputs and the relating aspects of typical boys' adolescence, making it literally impossible to forget their first loves. The voyeurism was in one point of view, yet with the other it was the same too, though the latter didn't get to live long. After years and decades of searching for the "why", it somehow led to a point of redundancy, evidence, bias, and notions agreeing with the deed itself. That growing up sucks and daydreaming is better. Life wasn't in their control, so they took matters into their own hands, though it spoke of unrelenting grief hanging to a thread and plenty of factors no one might've noted. The fact that the parent's way of putting up their children suffocated them, or it might have stemmed from a faulty gene (or so they say, and to the extremes of five of them all?), or they took religion in their own different interpretations, there are plenty of what ifs that arise. However, the decision made brought agony and awful influence to their surroundings. It's one to assess yet not to act upon.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Deadnaming, Confinement, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Stalking, Death, Alcohol, Blood, and Suicidal thoughts

nenac0's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs

jenny_librarian's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

This is a book about the patriarchal tendency of dehumanizing women. Which should be enough to tell you why I didn’t like it at all.

The writing itself is good, but that’s about the only redeeming quality to this book. The rest is just men being… well, men. I get what the author wanted to achieve with this, but why it needed to be written in this way is beyond me.

I keep hoping the next “classic” I read is going to be better, and I keep being disappointed because those “classics” were written by allocishet white men in a time women were seen as little more than property.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcohol, Confinement, Racism, Rape, Stalking, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Drug use, Pedophilia, Vomit, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Infidelity

chaoticweevil's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death, Sexism, Stalking, Ableism, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Vomit and Drug use

jaiari12's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Medical content, and Sexism

Minor: Pregnancy